Saturday, 13 July 2013

So here's my next post to catch up on what's been going on in the hobby zone for me. I've always wanted to fight the battle of Waterloo like many wargamers do, but my collection (shown above) is no where near adequate for that so for now I've chosen to fight another battle from the same campaign; Quatre Bras.
I have (finally) prepared a relatively decent army list for both sides which I think should do the job.

So I am building these two armies in preparation for the battle. The greater part of the forces will I'm afraid be made up of paper miniatures. But I think they look all right. Any way this is going to be the first of my progress reports, this one is on the British forces so far.

The Prince of Orange's contingent-So the hussars are on the top left with the four line units at the top right and centre. At the bottom runs the incomplete skirmish line. I still have to complete the skirmish line and add the Brunswicks, the light dragoons and of course the Prince himself.

Picton's forces which make up the original vanguard of reinforcements. Unfortunately as can be seen I have only completed two of the highlander units and am of course still missing Picton and the artillery battery.

And last but by no means least, Wellingtons contingent. The heavy dragoons on the left, the incomplete artillery battery on the right and the two line units in the centre. So I still need to finish the artillery battery and add in the three units of Hanoverians (basically British line, but whatever).

And a shot of the entire army so far. So hopefully this force will be much bigger if not complete by my next British report. Hoped you liked this preview of the gathering clouds. Next up the French!

Thursday, 4 July 2013

I know I haven't posted in a very long time so for that I am sorry and to make matters worse so much has happened. My first thought was to do one HUGE catch up post but I realised that would not only be boring to read but would also mean I would suddenly start drifting again with nothing to post about, so (hopefully) this will be the first of a series of smaller posts which will cover what has been happening during my period of silence.
First up here is a project I started and hope to pursue when my interests are revived again. I am fairly confident I can promise an eventual return to this but not an immediate one. Anyway, the actual project is as the post name suggests a terrain project for a Necron Tomb world (or at least part of one). The first piece has been completed; it is a Necron portal obelisk.

Tada! I remember when I was making this Dad wondered if it was a TARDIS!

Portal obelisks triple as a monument, a piece of very hard cover and a source of access to the battlefield for reserves. The structure is deployed with the front face (above) facing the enemy to soak up hostile fire. Meanwhile on the opposite side (bellow) Necron warriors march into play from the portal with the obelisk providing cover for them from the enemy. Genius!

The green portal was my first experiment with a sort of filler that Dad lent me. It came out a bit different to how I was expecting but, I still think it looks pretty good.

Nothing very amazing, just a side view.

And now on with the show! I have also completed two of my three Tomblades (at last), still sadly leaving one to go if I can push myself to it. And here they are below.

'Rise my minions. Rise! MWHAHAHA!'

And there you have it! And below a very slight preview as to what comes next in the project.......

Try and guess what it is going to be.

The local Cryptekh broods over the possibilities...

By for now. The next mini post should if all goes well be next week. Cheerio!
The Sarge At Arms!

Friday, 17 May 2013

The front door swinging open and closing
behind Holmes brought me back to wakefulness. Holmes was dripping wet, for the
storm clouds which had been gathering over London all day had broken open and
the heavens had released a great torrent of water upon the city. It seemed to
me as I sat up that Holmes had brought the greater part of that same downpour
into our room. Holmes shook his soaking head furiously sending water spraying
all over the room.

“I could not find a cab” said Holmes simply
in explanation as he walked across the living room and into his own, closing
the door behind him. A few minutes later he remerged looking fresh and with his
eyes shining. “Nothing like an evening walk in London Watson! This city truly
is an inspiration to me” cried Holmes unnecessarily loudly.

I shook my head as Holmes practically leapt
into his chair. He was always this way when he was engaged upon a case which
attracted him. “Well then Holmes”, said I, “what have you been up to that has
inspired you so much”.

“Well Watson first I made contact with Mr.
Burusa, you remember him from the ruby scarab case”. I strained my memory for a
few moments before recalling the case from the large number of them stacked
away at the back of mind. Mr. Burusa was an executive at the foreign office and
had been accused of stealing the item for which the case was named after, I
will lay the adventure on record at some point but for now I will only say it
involved a rather unique fight between Holmes myself and the formidable Mr. Cottagin,
which was made unique by the fact that it took place in both the inside and
outside of a fast moving carriage.

My expression of recollection showed Holmes
that I followed him, and he sped onwards; “I managed to obtain from him a list
of the people of Indian kind who have recently come over to England. And by a
process of elimination I narrowed the number of suspects down to three and
found that one of these Mr. Tiran had been murdered about a week ago with no leads
to be found except one; a note had been ‘attached’ by a knife to his head. It
read simply: I have revenge.

“After further enquiry I found that one of
his most faithful servants had been sent out on an errand carrying a paper
packet and had returned without it. This servant had been dressed all in black
robes which disguised him completely covering all of him but his eyes. That my
dear Watson I believe we can call conclusive”.

“Conclusive I suppose you mean of the fact
that the man who Feldech bought the spine from has nothing to do with the crimes
and that in fact he was also one of the victims”.

“Bravo Watson, your powers of observing the
obvious are become more precise every day”, said Holmes dryly. “But his death
is indeed very irritating for it deprives us of a great deal of information. But,
from what we know this Mr. Tiran obtained this spine through crooked means from
the original owners and that they desire to get it back, and finding he did not
have it they traced it to Mr. Feldech and killed off the source of their
information”.

At this I shivered at the obvious cold
bloodedness of the murders, and Holmes saw it. He nodded very slowly and leaned
back into his chair stared at the sealing for several minutes before once again
continuing. “After that investigation was complete I called at Scotland Yard
and spoke with inspector Lestrade who had been engaged upon the case of the
murder of Mr. Tiran and tried to find out all I could about the case. Ah
Lestrade, if only he could be changed in his was, all he really had for me was
precisely what I have just told you and left very disappointed.

“But on my way back here a sudden thought
occurred to me which not only will be of great help in the case but also
classically shows how I am by far not the nearest equal of the character you
place within your romantic writings”.

I sighed, was Holmes always going to go on
and on about that? “Well Holmes, what was this new branch of thought?”

“The extraordinarily simple fact that most
likely the murders also came from India. Oh to think I was so foolish as to not
see it! Ah well, and of course at that time it was far too late to mend
matters. So Doctor we have a lead but thanks to my own stupidity we have lost
precious time and can do no more until the hours of the morning”.

“Well Holmes if don’t mind I think I’ll
retire. I found a good train out to Dorset at about 10:30?”

“Oh, yes most excellent. Well, good night
Watson”.

“Goodnight Holmes”. And with that I retired
to my room and slept rather uneasily with some very unpleasant images imprinted
upon my mind. When I awoke in the morning I dressed and went out into the main
room to find that Holmes was gone having left a note upon the table:

Have
gone to chase up the lead. Will be back in time to catch the train.

SH

I sighed as I replaced the note upon the
table. Holmes would no doubt only catch the train within a few minutes or less
before it pulled out of the station. Mean while I did my best to occupy myself for the time left until I would
have to head out to catch the train. I attempted to read, to smoke and I even
took a rather refreshing walk but my mind always steadily wandered back to the
case and the rather traumatic experience that Holmes’s latest client had been
through.

My original suppositions about Holmes’s
timing were to no surprise to me quite correct. Just as the guard cried ‘all
aboard’ for the last time Holmes came speeding up the platform like a whirlwind
tossed his ticket to the collector-who only just managed to grab it before it
was whisked away by an unfriendly breeze-and then leapt up onto the train and just
as it began to move out of the station.

“Now Holmes you really must stop doing
that”, I reprimanded, “someday you’re going to miss the train completely and be
stuck out on the platform as the train speeds off”. In reply Holmes cried out;
“bah! Watson I would never be so careless.” We both laughed quietly as the
train sped through the country side.

After a few minutes I decided to ply Holmes
for information. “Well Holmes. Was it a worthwhile lead or not?”

Holmes looked up at me from between his
stippled fingers and replied simply; “no”. That one word bespoke all of
Holmes’s frustration and disappointment.

“So, they were already here?”

“It is a possibility Watson, but I suspect
they slipped in under the official nose, for I could find no one from India who
could be suspect”.

“Well what now?”

“Now Watson we shall pursue or
investigation at the scenes of the crimes in Dorset”.

And with that Holmes was silent for the
greater part of the train ride and only emerged from his silence towards the end
of the journey to enter into conversation with me, and so we passed the long
train ride. Upon arriving at the station we hailed a cab which took us directly
to Mr. Feldech’s estate.

The grounds extended for several miles in
each direction from what I could see and consisted mainly of both thick and
sparse woodland. The house itself was three stories and made of a dull red
brick with rather large curving windows upon the ground floor and several
balconies jutted out from the upper levels. The roof being made of a greatly
polished tile and so seemed to shine in the sunlight. At the centre of the
ground floor was a large double door painted green with golden emblems in the
images of griffins were carved upon the door, while a coat of arms consisting
of a great shield with coiling serpent upon it, the snake was coiling around a
great sword. The shield was held in place by a set of griffins almost identical
to those on the doors.

If the great half bird half lions had not
been enough to mark the house a large number of policemen were bustling about
the estate and out the very front of the house stood our client and inspector
Bradstreet. Holmes and I descended from the cab walked swiftly up the path to
meet them. “Good morning Bradstreet!” cried Holmes as he ascended the steps at
the foot of the door.

“Good morning Mr. Holmes, Dr. Watson.
Always a pleasure”, replied the detective. “I had wondered if you would be
joining us. Mr. Feldech told me he had gone out to you. I assume you’ll be
wanting to take a look at the murder sites”.

“Thank you inspector, but I should first
like to make an examination of the bodies of the unfortunate victims”, replied
Holmes.

“Certainly, though I don’t know how much
you’ll be able to find Mr. Holmes” said Bradstreet scratching his head as he
spoke of the likely hood of Holmes’s success.

Mr. Feldech followed us as we walked around
too the back of the building and entered a large pavilion inside which we found
several tables set up and upon three long tables lay the bodies of the three
unfortunate victims. Holmes moved immediately to the older one whom I assumed was
the father and began very detailed examinations of the body. Then suddenly he
looked up still holding his lens which gave a rather ridiculous appearance to
the left side of his head at which I tried hard not to laugh though I could
tell that I was the only one to see the humor of the situation from the faces
of my companions. “My dear Bradstreet would care to help me turn the body over
for I perceive from numerous mud stains that he was lying upon his front and so
there would be more to tell upon the other side”.

Bradstreet and I both moved over and as
gently as possible turned over the poor man’s body so that he lay upon his face
and stepped back to allow Holmes to continue his study of the body. As Holmes
went over the back of the man carefully with his lens I heard him muttering
quietly to himself; “no marks upon the leg or ankle, not a snake then. No marks
upon his face so not suffocation. No head injuries, I, ahhh, aha! Slight, very
slight but unmistakable, but how is there no blood hmm, oh”. And then his
mutterings became so quiet I could not hear a word. After a few more minutes of
examination Holmes stood up, stretched and turned to Bradstreet. “I would now
like to examine the place of the father’s death”.

“But, you haven’t looked at the other two
yet”, exclaimed Bradstreet in confusion.

“Oh, I’ll do that later”, replied Holmes
sticking his head back into the pavilion for he had already dashed past the
rest of us and out into the grounds.

We followed the inspector to a large lawn
which descended at a gentle slope down from the house until it reached a thin
stream which wound its way briefly out of the woods and then back under the
cover of the trees. A large piece of matting had been placed upon the ground
not far from the house showing the place where the man had been found.

Holmes rushed over to this and bending down
close to the ground he peeled the matting away and began to carefully examine
the patch of ground. After only a few seconds of observation Holmes stood up
and to our surprise took off at high speeds towards the woods keeping in line
with the indent in the ground which I assumed was the place where the body had
fallen.

Both the inspector and I shared a quick
glance and set off after Holmes leaving our astonished client standing gaping
behind us. When Holmes reached the stream rather to going round to the bridge
he proceeded to leap over the stream and continue sprinting at full speed
towards the trees. When Bradstreet and I reached the stream we were both out of
breath and after sharing a quick nod we set off around the stream to the small
wooden bridge father up the stream near the woods.

When we finally caught up to Holmes we
found him bending over a small patch of ground behind several bushes.
Bradstreet at first opened his mouth to speak but shook my head to quiet him
for when Holmes was occupied with a crime scene he did not appreciate any form
of interruption. Instead the inspector and I edged closer to Holmes until we
could see what he was fascinated by. It seemed to me the some kind of large dog
had pushed its feet deep into the ground churning it up, but the strange thing
was that it was not the print of any sort of dog that I knew in fact it was
more like that of a cat.

A few moments later Holmes leaped around
the ground so that he faced the house and I bending over behind him could see
finally what was so fascinating about the area. If the bushes in front were
pushed even slightly aside it gave a direct view of the place where the man had
fallen.

I found that I had to quickly leap out of
Holmes’s way as he spun round to examine the ground behind the tracks and stood
bending over that patch of ground,
looking (so I presume) for the animal’s receding tracks though I could see
nothing. My interpretation proved correct for Holmes suddenly shot up and
yelled at the sky in frustration. “Watson”, he said very slowly, “I would
prefer that next time you watch where you put your feet!” At this I looked down
at my shoes flushing red in embarrassment. Suddenly Holmes burst out laughing
and I shot him a very disapproving him scowl. I did not much appreciate being
fooled in front of the inspector, but after seeing the situation from Holmes’s
angle I couldn’t help but laugh myself.

Several minutes later we found ourselves in
the room that had belonged to the murdered sister. “Personally I don’t see how
the room has been disturbed”, said I.

“Yes, most people would think that”,
explained Feldech, “but to someone such as myself who has seen the room as it
normally was could tell that while the room looks orderly several things in the
room have been moved to different positions”.

“Well Mr. Holmes”, said Bradstreet, “what
do make of all this?”

Holmes did not reply for he was engaged
with a careful study of the window which was set into the far wall above the
bed. “Hmm, couldn’t be opened from outside. Faint marks………..scratched......”
Holmes was muttering under his breath as he usually did in situations such as
this. He then proceeded to begin a close examination of the bed sheets making
no sound but shaking his head continuously. Suddenly he looked up, “Mr. Feldech
you mentioned that your sister had a long scratch similar to the one upon your
own face, why then is there so little blood upon the sheets?”

Our client opened his mouth then shut it
again, to which Holmes’s simple reply was, “precisely”. And with the Holmes
began closely to examine the floor of the room with his lens and to mutter very
quietly under his breath. So quietly in fact that I could hear nothing that he
said.

After this Holmes returned to the pavilion
while I decided to take my leave for a while and to stroll over the grounds a
while and get a bit of fresh air. When I next saw Holmes was in the drawing
room with Mr. Feldech and inspector Bradstreet, and much to my surprise
drinking a cup tea. As I entered I heard Holmes say; “so do not fear, I myself
and Watson if he so chooses will. Oh, but look, here he is now. Good afternoon
Watson”.

“Good afternoon Holmes. What exactly are we
going to be doing?” said I.

“Why we are going to stay here for the
night and make sure that Mr. Feldech here does not have any rather unpleasant
accidents”. The word accidents dripped with an iciness that showed what Holmes
really meant by the word. “Of course if you should wish to stay at the inn
instead”, said Holmes with a twinkle in his eye.

“Oh Holmes, don’t be foolish of course I’ll
stay”.

“Good, good. Now sit down Watson and we
shall discuss our battle plan for the night”.

I seated myself down beside Holmes upon the
sofa and listened closely whilst he out lined his plans. “After dinner Mr.
Feldech when everyone has left the room you must remain alone in the dining
room and do not leave under any circumstances unless I tell you to. That is of
paramount importance, you must also appear drunk”.

“Mr. Holmes!” cried our client in outrage.

“I must insist upon the point Mr. Feldech.
Bradstreet you shall station both yourself and a constable at the door which
leads on to the hallway. Watson and I shall be at the other door, and you
Bradstreet are too move in when I call for you, and not before”.

“But Mr. Holmes what on Earth is the
purpose of all this?” asked the greatly confused inspector.

“You shall see Bradstreet, you shall see”.
Holmes smiled and sipped his tea.

Well, that's part two and I hope you enjoyed it. Next week I should have the Stug I mentioned up and running and rearing to go along with a few more German infantry men. And maybe if I can get myself to work hard enough a couple of other things.

Friday, 10 May 2013

Hello everyone, no I did not give up on posting or vanish from the face of the earth. Simply put, I got a little side tracked, then school started again. AAARRRRGGGGHHH! But still the holidays were productive(ish); an actual game of 40K-hooray!-a bit of painting of Germans, some innovative and very rapid army building, a small addition to my armoury and plans for a potentially very interesting campaign.
So, I suppose this could be called a bit of an after-holidays post.
First up we have an-unfortunately short, but hopefully well narrated-40K clash between my Necron legions and my friend Zac's motley crew of orks. And so we begin!

﻿

The battle field with orks deployed.

In the grim darkness of the far future (blah blah blah) for over a hundred decades the Emperor has sat on (something something something) the ancient legions rise from the sands of distant and desolate worlds (rhubarb rhubarb rhubarb) and so the two armies now clash over a soon to be desolate landscape.
So no more unnecessary long intro, into the good bits. The idea behind the battle was that a Necron overlord and his (rather formidable) retinue have been cut off from the rest of the force and the ork hordes seeing their chance to disrupt the implacable Necron advance are attempting to cut of and destroy the Necron overlord.

﻿﻿﻿﻿The air was thick with the sound of distant bullet and gauss fire, the actual conflict was far away, for now at least. Then an unusual aroma of rotting meat, sweat and cow dung accompanied by many loud shouts of WAAGH! heralded the ork approach as Warlord Bigstomppa lead his boyz onto the battlefield.
﻿﻿﻿﻿

The ork HQ; the Warboss, a Mekboy, a armoured noband squad of burna boyz

The main bulk of the ork force, the squad of slugga boyz

The gretchin gun fodder

The lone biker

And the storm boyz

And amongst the ruins of the city whose name was now blasted deep beneath its own shattered buildings, the Necrons came gliding and marching silently through the streets.
﻿﻿

The overlord and his followers deploy

Quickly the Necrons began their advance moving up through the streets, the Triarch Praetorians moved off to the left floating over the ground with the use of their anti-gravity units. The orks gave a great cry and began to move forward the boyz taking cover behind bushes and opening fire on their advancing enemies. In response the Triarch Praetorians raised their rods of covenant and blasted down several of the foe despite the interposing cover.
﻿﻿﻿﻿

The next act came to the Necron warriors who let loose a barrage of shots at the gretchins who cowered some distance away. But the range combined with the obscurity of the target caused most of the shots to go wide.

The frustrated gretchins mostly scrambled for cover, while a single small green squat figure raised his over sized weapon and fired.....

Drat!

The annihilation barge glided forwards to give the Praetorians the aide of its twin linked tesla destructor, which it unleashed on the ork boyz. Meanwhile the overlord accompanied by a cryptekh for protection moved up the central street. Over on the flank the gretchins gathered their meagre nerve (more likely it was the hulking form of the advancing Warboss) and scuttled forward to hide behind one of the ruined buildings.

I can't see them so they can't see me. Right?

﻿

Then suddenly the ork boyz let loose a torrent of lead upon the praetorians felling one of them, who promptly climbed back to his feet as his self-repair systems whirred to life.

Its only a necrodermis wound.

Then all order seemed to be thrown to the winds, as the orks charged into hand to hand combat. They hacked and slashed away dealing a great deal of damage, but the praetorians stood firm and with the help of precise targeting by the annihilation barge, threw the orks from the combat﻿ and set them into brief retreat.

Three to two, hardly seems fair.

The melee only worsened however as the gretchins leaped up and dealt a surprise attack (of sorts) too the Necron warriors.﻿ Then rockets and orks roared and the storm boyz charged flying over the ground to clash with the barge, while the HQ and biker moved in rapidly to close off the street and another small horde of orks loomed up behind the Necrons cutting off their retreat.

"101, beware, they can bite your ankles!"

So, you think you have some big guns huh?

"Let's stomp 'em boyz!"

The cryptekh was destroyed completely in the chaos and the hand-to-hand saw orks and Necrons felled alike as the boyz who had just recently been routed turned and charged back in again. The Necron overlord managed to slip over to cover of the barge which fended off the storm boyz with precise shots.

And then........ we had to pack up. :(
It was an interesting game, but unfortunately Zac and I due to lack of gaming time don't know the rules as well as we would like and so the pace was a bit slow﻿. In the end we counted up how many points worth of units we still had in play and then rolled two D6 which we added to the total to see who won. I did, but only just, since I actually was points wise out-numbered. :)

Now the second part of my after holidays post.
I have long been interested in planetary empires, ever since I discovered it in an old White Dwarf magazine. But since I can't afford it I have an alternative, LEGO bricks!

My two planets, markers and special markers

I've built two planets and have named one Andromeda, the other world is still nameless (I would like some help here please), I have also made some special markers to be placed here and there on empty tiles.

The larger jungle world of Andromeda

The nameless desert world

Left too right, Manafactorium, Command bastion, Power station and shield generator.

The game markers

And here are what above markers are representing.

The Isisarin dynasty (Tomblades still to be added)

Overlord Sheran mounted in his command barge.

The immortals

The Necron Phalanx

The Triarch Praetorians

Bow before me

Prepare to be incinerated

The newly painted rear with decals.

Beware the scarab swarm!

Lord Duraz

Deep Sear Thok

The annihilation barge

Tesla destructor

My high score's 10100

Hah! 20000

﻿﻿

And their cheaper opponents.

Not an army to sneeze at!

Captain

1st tactical squad

2nd tactical squad

The terminators

The dreadnought

1st Assault marines

These fellows I regret, cannot be made available to anyone else due to copyright. :(
And to wrap up the holidays I got to go shopping! (technically I wrapped up the holidays by seeing Iron Man 3 which I do recommend). Here are my trophies:

An addition to my German armoury, an Airfix stug

And the kits contents

Also the now out-dated Tau codex which I bought mainly because of how cheap it was

The inside

Meet Commanders Shadowsun..

And Farsight

Hobby section

FOR THE GREATER GOOD!

Well that's all from me for now I suppose, man this took a long time. Anyway next time I will put up the next part of my Sherlock Holmes story and after that (hopefully) I will have that Stug to show you.
By for now, all comments greatly appreciated.
Sarge at Arms!